Broadway Musicians' Union Sounds Off About Recorded Music

The fur -- and feather boas -- are flying in New York, where the Broadway musicians' union is waging what the New York Times calls "an unusually aggressive, political-style campaign" against the producers of the musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The dispute centers on the use of recorded music as a substitute for some of the 18 or 19 live musicians generally required under the union contract for Broadway musicals. And what's more, the fight echoes 1940s disputes that helped result in modern-day residuals.